Speakers
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Frank AdamsSEED and RMRMFrank is a German-born market gardener who moved to Luxembourg in 1994 to establish an ecosystemic, circular farming project rooted in self-produced organic seeds—certified since 1996. Holding a master’s certificate since 1998, he has trained numerous apprentices and, since 2010, serves as an education officer in market gardening at the Lycée Technique Agricole. Frank co-founded SEED Luxembourg and the Meuse-Rhine-Moselle Network, advancing farmer- and citizen-led seed diversity in the Greater Region. His work spans hands-on seed training, public awareness on seed sovereignty, advocacy for biodiversity-friendly seed laws, and networking across national and European seed initiatives.
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Susanne GuraDKNVSusanne Gura is a Board member of Dachverband Kulturpflanzen- und Nutztiervielfalt, an umbrella of 25 diversity organisations from german speaking countries
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Adam AlexanderSeed DetectiveAdam Alexander is a British horticulturalist, seed saver, author, and former film & television producer. Since the late 1980s, his passion for rare and heritage vegetables—triggered by an encounter with a remarkable pepper in Ukraine—has driven a global quest to locate, conserve, and share endangered varieties. Living on a 3.5-acre garden in eastern Wales, he cultivates over 100 vegetable varieties each year and maintains a seed library with more than 500 types, many sourced during international travels . His debut book The Seed Detective (published in September 2022) recounts his journeys, the social and historical contexts of our everyday vegetables, and the importance of seed diversity—earning critical acclaim and awards including BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme Book of the Year and a GardenComm Silver Laurel Medal in 2023
Organizer
Meuse-Rhine-Moselle Network (RMRM)
The Meuse-Rhine-Moselle Network (RMRM) is a platform bringing together stakeholders active in the field of peasant and citizen seeds in the region bounded by the Rhine, Meuse and Moselle (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, North East France and West Germany). The general objective of the Network is to contribute, through the action of its members, to the safeguarding and promotion of the diversity of useful plants, in particular those used for human consumption, through the maintenance and development of the local diversity of food plants. The seeds and plants prohibited and promoted by the Network are those resulting from an in situ or ex situ selection, of traditional, local or locally adapted varieties or cultivars, preferably artisanally reproducible and adapted to agro-ecological cultivation methods. Among its specific objectives, the Network intends to develop and support the cultivation, multiplication, improvement, circulation and varietal creation of seeds of these varieties and their derivatives on local markets.
Other Organizers
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SEED
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Website
https://seed-net.lu/
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Dachverband Kulturpflanzen Nutztiere Vielfalt e. V.
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Website
https://kulturpflanzen-nutztiervielfalt.org/
WS 13 – From seed savers to diversity developers: towards a new narrative
Do ‘seed savers’ merely preserve ‘old varieties’ or even ‘collect old seeds’? Are they nostalgic people in a folkloric niche, resisting technological progress and changing realities? This workshop aims to highlight the indispensable contribution of ‘seed savers’ to sustainable food systems for the future and the need for a new proactive narrative.
